GiftWrapped Kiss
by Marenfic
Summary: Prequel to Ordinary Day in an Extraordinary Life. Dawn/Cordy future-fic femslash in which Cordy passes on a gift.


**Gift-Wrapped Kiss**

**A prequel to Ordinary Day in an Extraordinary Life**

She's leaving her last class of the day and making her way toward the train station when she notices Cordelia Chase coming towards her.

If she were a normal university student and saw a dead person walking her way, she might scream and run or maybe turn herself in to university counseling services on the pretext of an obvious mental breakdown. But Dawn Summers isn't a normal university student so she stops and waits for Cordelia to approach.

As she waits she watches Cordy, and she has to admit the woman looks fabulous for being dead. Her skin isn't green or decayed and her clothes don't have a visible tear on them, so Dawn crosses "zombie" off the list of possibilities explaining her presence. She seems solid enough, but Dawn's learned from experience that you can't always tell corporeality from a distance.

What she can tell from a rapidly decreasing distance is that Cordelia looks as fabulous as ever. She's in tailored brown pants, a white shirt and a fitted leather jacket that Dawn might consider killing someone for. Her hair is as dark and long as it was when she was still in high school, back when Dawn idolized the pretty older cheerleader who was popular and didn't seem too impressed by Buffy. Since Dawn wasn't too impressed by Buffy back then either, it was a selling point.

Cordelia stops in front of her and tilts her head, like she's trying to place Dawn's face in her memory. She starts to open her mouth to speak, but Dawn beats her to it.

"Ghost or supernatural girl-Jesus?" It's a perfunctory greeting, but Dawn likes things to know where things stand and they seem like the two best options on her list. Anything else, and Dawn probably should have taken the scream-and-run approach of a normal university student.

Cordelia raises a well-groomed eyebrow and crosses her arms at her waist. "Well, hello to you too." And the way she says it is exactly the way Dawn remembers Cordy talking, sarcasm and sharp barbs covered in a silky smooth voice. "You _have_ to be Buffy's sister, what with the complete lack of social skills. Dawn Summers, right?"

Dawn tilts her head in disbelief. Sure, she was barely a teenager the last time she saw Cordy but she doesn't look _that_ different. She guesses Cordy could be a ghost with amnesia, but that seems counterproductive to the whole "laying old business to rest" haunting thing.

"Uh, yeah, and you're Cordelia Chase. Maybe. Or sort of. Look, I don't want to be rude. . ."

She's interrupted by the sound of Cordelia snorting, and she glares at the amnesiaghost-notazombie as she continues.

". . . but last time I heard you've been dead for like, years."

Something flickers in Cordy's face and she hugs herself tighter. She looks vulnerable and Dawn can't ever remember Cordelia Chase looking vulnerable.

"Yeah. Look, it's a long story best told over drinks. Is there someplace nearby we could go?"

*

Dawn takes Cordy to a dark pub three blocks from the university and leads them to a small table in the back. The place is still fairly empty but Dawn wants to make sure that if anything weird happens it'll be hard for the drunken people to get a good view.

She grabs a beer for herself and a bourbon and Diet Coke for Cordelia, then sits down and watches closely as Cordy picks up the glass and takes a big drink.

Corporeal, then. Dawn takes a sip of her own and wonders what the hell is going on.

"The Powers brought me back so I could give you a gift," Cordy says with a slightly bored voice.

Well, that answers that. Supernatural girl-Jesus. Dawn thinks it's a bit overdone these days in her immediate circle, but she's not about to say that to Cordy.

"A gift? Did they have something specific in mind, or are you taking requests? Because I'd totally like to have the new Louis Vuitton bag," she says instead.

Cordy makes a noise of disbelief in the back of her throat. "Please, not even the Powers can get that bag. It's completely sold out."

Dawn laughs, and after a moment so does Cordy. It seems to break the tension and after their first round, Cordelia starts telling Dawn about visions and half-demons, about death and resurrection. She's surprised to hear that Cordy really doesn't remember her at all—too much magic to bring back to life apparently and Dawn is surprised to find out she's glad. It's nice talking to someone from her past who can't conjure images of the gawky pre-teen that the monks had oh so kindly planted in everyone else's minds.

After their third drink Dawn is feeling beyond tipsy. She can't help but notice the pink tinge that the alcohol has given Cordelia's cheeks, or the way her smile is just as bright and beautiful as Dawn remembers it. And she knows this is an important conversation, but she's a red-blooded American girl in London with the first woman she ever had a crush on and the important details of it all are sort of jumbling together.

So it takes her a second to realize that Cordy has stopped talking and is looking at her like she's slow or something.

"Maybe I should have rethought this drinking plan," Cordelia murmurs under her breath before continuing in a slow loud voice that Dawn's pretty sure she should be insulted by. "This is an important decision here. Will you take the visions or not?"

Dawn thinks about it, about the way the visions were slowly killing Cordelia until she turned herself into something other than human, about the decidedly unpleasant idea of random gross life-like visions popping into her head in a completely unpredictable manner. She thinks about how she's been studying language, how she'd planned to go to graduate school next fall after she finishes her undergraduate degree, how she's been trying to make something in her life that isn't about slayers and vampires. And then she thinks about the way Cordelia made it all sound important and okay, even in the midst of all the gory details.

Dawn clears her throat. "They wouldn't be painful right? Because of the Key thing."

Cordy nods and reaches over to place the tips of her fingers on Dawn's wrist. The sensation that travels up Dawn's arm is pleasant and comforting.

"Ok." It's not that difficult a decision. If she can help her sister and their friends, she will.

"Ok," Cordy says, and then she leans over and presses her lips against Dawn's.

For a split second Dawn is too shocked to react, but then her hormones take over and her mouth starts moving of its own accord. Her tongue darts out and smooths across Cordy's lower lip until Cordy makes a noise in the back of her throat. Dawn's just about to wrap her hand in Cordy's hair to pull her even closer when Cordy pulls away with a gasp.

Dawn looks at Cordelia through eyes that feel much heavier than usual and sees her absently touch her lips with the tips of her fingers. Then she shakes her head and peers at Dawn critically.

"I was afraid of this."

Dawn's a little taken aback. She thought it was pretty good herself.

"Of what, kissing me?"

Cordelia rolls her eyes. "Get real. It's not something I want spread around, but I've kissed much worse. Like demons, my surrogate son, and _Wesley_."

Dawn is completely unimpressed with her standing in that list. "Um, thanks," she says, sitting back in her chair and trying to replace the slightly aroused look she thinks is probably plastered on her face with something more appropriate for poker, or kissing girls who aren't into you.

Cordy shakes her head, impatient. "I didn't mean it like that. Look, the visions are like a gift and there seems to be some kind of romance-clause to passing them on. You'd think that since the Powers resurrected me for this, they'd give us a pass on that part but _no_. So we can't just kiss, it has to be a _real_ kiss."

Dawn doesn't tell Cordelia that it felt like a real kiss to _her_, but she guesses that technically they just met a few hours ago as far as Cordelia is concerned. She doesn't have the years-long crush that Dawn does, and if she did. . . well, that would be kind of ewwww. But now Cordy's looking at her speculatively, like maybe she doesn't really mind the idea of kissing until they get it right.

"Romance? Like, you and me with the warm fuzzies and tingly parts." Dawn's voice is skeptical, but she can't stop the smile that's slowly spreading across her face.

Cordelia's answering smile is part flirtation and part challenge. "Don't be such a wuss. I can inspire fantastic tingles when I want to."

Dawn doesn't doubt it. And she's not a wuss.

This may just turn out to be the best gift Dawn has ever gotten.

-End


End file.
